


The Flat of Interludes

by Skyuni123



Series: AU!New Zealand [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Diary-type format, Homosexuality, Immortality, M/M, New Zealand, The Forever Drug, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 01:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2048484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyuni123/pseuds/Skyuni123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a series of interludes to go with my novel ‘The Forever Drug’ which I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2011 and began to rewrite for NaNoWriMo 2013.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Flat of Interludes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a series of interludes to go with my novel ‘The Forever Drug’ which I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2011 and began to rewrite for NaNoWriMo 2013. In ‘The Forever Drug’, the daughter of a prominent scientist and an archaeologist, called Erica Rovelyn, discovers a mysterious box that has a liquid in it that can cause people to become immortal while they’re at an archeological dig. Her boyfriend, Zackary, and herself, are all for it, but their best friend, Thomas, thinks there’s something off about it and parts company with them to live in a flat with his friend, Michael. Michael samples the Immortality drug and goes through the Change to become an immortal and hijinks ensue.

Thomas was procrastinating from his study for his end of year NCEA exams on Twitter when he spotted one of the major NZ newspapers tweet a headline. _Immortality Drug: Realistic Hoax or True Time Distorter?_   
With a sinking stomach, he clicked the link that came with the article. After skimming the article, he sat back in his chair, feeling ill. They'd actually done it. He'd warned them not to and they'd still gone ahead with the Change.   
This wasn't going to go well. He could feel it. He felt nausea rise in his throat and he just managed to swallow down his sick feeling. It wasn't right! They were messing with things that no-one had any idea about!   
  
That box had been buried for a reason.   
  
Thomas's, 6'1, blonde-haired, green eyed flatmate Michael walked past on his way to his room from the shower, wearing only a towel. He looked over Thomas's shoulder at the screen to see what Thomas was looking so grimly at. "Immortality drug?" Michael scoffed, "Nah man. That's a hoax."   
  
"Thanks for your opinion mate." Thomas glanced at his flatmate. "Did you even read the article?"  
  
"Sure." Michael said, poking Thomas in the neck and heading to his room. "It's not real. Probably publicity for a movie or something."   
  
His voice got softer and softer as he disappeared around the corner. "Cynic!" Thomas yelled at him, but his heart was lightened a bit. Sure, he'd been around to find the drug, but it probably would come out to be a hoax sooner rather than later. It had to. They couldn’t be messing with time like that, could they?

\--

A month later, four days before Christmas, Thomas was staring at his laptop, contemplating not going home for Christmas and deciding what he was going to do instead. He clicked onto Facebook, deciding to see if anyone would be hanging around and needed a mate for Christmas (unlike his traitorous roommate) and saw that an article had been posted onto his FB wall.   
He clicked onto it, expecting yet another conspiracy theory or something dumb that someone had posted on Twitter then shared to Facebook, but instead it was a newspaper article entitled _Humans Are Forever Co-Operative Open Their Offices_. One of his school friends had commented on the article: 'Isnt dat chick in pic Erica Rovelyn? Dam, wish id gone there. Shes hawt. Know her no., tom?'   
  
Thomas wrinkled his nose.   
  
And this was why he didn't really talk to his school mates out of school time. He clicked on the link and gasped in shock. Erica, a flawless, shining Erica was cutting the tape in front of a large block of offices with a sign in front saying _'Humans Are Forever_ '. Thomas scoffed.   
Humans.  
As if you could call the Immortals that.   
They were as far removed from humanity as chimps were. Except perhaps for Erica…   
  
\--

Michael arrived back from his Christmas break to find Thomas, looking incredibly worse for wear on the couch with beer cans littering the floor around him and his laptop in his hands.  
"The fuck happened to you?" Michael asked bluntly.  
  
Thomas simply turned the laptop around to show the screen. It was another news article, this one reading Immortality Drug is Hot New Christmas Present for Celebrities.  
  
"Oh." Michael said, walking over to the couch and hauling a surprised Thomas off it. "You are going to get something that's not nothing for dinner and then going to bed. Too much alcohol, mate. That Immortality drug thing's just a hoax. A publicity stunt for a movie..."   
  
The words echoed in his head, hollow, and most of all, a definite lie.  
  
\--   
  
It was mid-May, when Thomas was trying to finish an impossible essay on Othello for his English class that Michael came bursting through the door, hand clutched to his neck, blood pouring through his fingers. Thomas put his laptop aside and jumped off the couch. "What the hell happened man?"  
  
He dragged Michael into the bathroom where surprisingly enough, they had a few plasters and Savlon. "I got bit." Michael gasped. "By one of Them."  
  
"What!" Thomas jumped back from him, "But.."   
  
"Dude, that Changing thing just from a bite is totally a myth. You can't be bitten by an Immortal and go through the Change. It's barely a prick. It'll be fine." Michael said, wiping the blood off his neck with a wad of toilet paper.   
  
"Are you sure?" Thomas said, squirting way too much savlon onto Michael's neck and getting him to rub it in.   
  
"Yeah.. Course." Michael replied, "One of the other baristas' at the cafe got bit and she's fine."   
  
"Whatever dude, you're sleeping on the couch tonight." Thomas smirked, poking him in the back and going back to his essay.  
  
"I'd be on you in seconds if I Changed." Michael pointed out, "There's about three metres from the couch to the bedroom."  
  
"Would you now.." Thomas said, quirking an eyebrow at him, "Would you..."   
  
\--   
  
Early August, Thomas, Michael and two of Michael's work colleagues had gone out to a pub to celebrate Thomas's eighteenth. Thomas was just tucking into his first legally acquired beer when the crowd in the bar suddenly parted. A trio of Immortals had just waltzed in and up to the bar and demanded drinks.   
  
The usually poised inhuman creatures looked a bit worse for wear and Thomas briefly wondered what happened. The Immortals were far stronger than humans and it wasn't often that you saw them looking raggedy.  
  
The leader of the trio of Immortals, a woman with bright red hair, dressed in all leather seemed to be getting into an argument with the bartender, a large Tongan man that Thomas's mates knew vaguely on principle, who wasn't backing down. The last thing Thomas saw before a spray of blood obscured most of his vision was two security guards coming to remove the Immortals from the bar.


End file.
